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Enderron
Enderron (/ˈɛndərɒn/), officially the Republic of Enderron, is a country constituting the western third of the East Asian island of Mariana. It shares a land border with Batavia to the east. The nation's capital and largest city is Wentworth. The first peoples of Mariana (and by extension, Enderron) were the Native Marianans, who first arrived between 1250 and 1300. Their first contact with outsiders was in 1556, when the first Asian settlers, mainly consisting of Filipino, Chinese and Japanese traders, formed small settlements in the northwest the island (today's Greenberg, Longshan and Kaigan prefectures). Soon after, due to a combination of disease and territorial tensions with the settlers, the Native Marianans left en masse for other Pacific islands, with many never to return. In 1610, Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon became the first European to sight Mariana. Dutch colonists began establishing settlements across the island throughout the next fifteen years. British colonists arrived and claimed the entire island on 27 March 1625, starting a decades-long rivalry with the Dutch colonists. Following persistent tensions, the Anglo-Dutch Mariana War occurred in 1692, resulting in the eastern two thirds of the island being ceded to the Netherlands (becoming Dutch Mariana, and later the country of Batavia) and the remaining western third becoming English Mariana, later becoming British Mariana in 1707. It was renamed the Colony of Enderron, after a corruption of the Dutch name Einderaam, in 1759. Some border territories, mostly in Sierra, were loaned to Spanish colonists during the 18th century. The colony became self-governed in 1759, gained responsible government with an elected legislature in 1818, and was promoted to dominion status in 1911, becoming a de facto independent state under the control of the British Empire. It became a founding member of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1926. During World War II, Enderron was occupied by Japan. Following the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945, Enderron returned to British rule. It was granted full independence as a Commonwealth realm on 16 September 1946 with the British monarch as head of state, and became a Commonwealth republic on 9 August 1970 as a result of the signing of the Republic of Enderron Act 1970. Since its independence, Enderron has maintained a steady liberal democratic political system functioning as a federal parliamentary republic comprising 16 prefectures and 2 special municipalities. The population of nearly 31 million is highly urbanised, with more than a quarter of the population living in the cities of Wentworth and New Plymouth combined. The population of Enderron is highly multicultural, and ethnically and religiously diverse. Since the 1970s the federal government's position has been to encourage and promote racial harmony based on a policy of multiculturalism. Today, a majority of the population is of European heritage, with significant Asian and Native Marianan minorities. Enderron's culture is referred to as a 'mosaic', with both Asian and European influences. The country's official language is English, with Chinese, Dutch and Japanese recognised as official minority languages. Enderron is a highly developed country with a stable mixed-market advanced economy. Its economy is dominated by the service, tourism and agriculture sectors. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the country achieved considerable prosperity, undergoing rapid industrialisation, technological innovation and development and maintaining exceptionally high growth rates from the 1950s to the 1990s. It underwent major economic and political changes in the 1970s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trading economy. Enderron measures high on international measurements of government stability and transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, education, economic and press freedom, inclusiveness, tolerance and personal rights. Enderron has been ranked within the top 15 positions in the Democracy Index since its inception in 2006. Today, Enderron is regarded as an influential nation in the world, mainly due to its efficient democratic government and stable economy. Enderron is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, ASEAN Plus and the Pacific Islands Forum. Enderron is regarded as one of the most socially advanced and progressive countries in the Asia-Pacific region, having legalised abortion, same-sex marriage and voluntary euthanasia and maintaining a progressive drug policy. The country allowed universal suffrage in 1955, abolished the death penalty in 1964, outlawed all racial discrimination in 1970 and legalised same-sex marriage in 2010. Name The name Enderron is an Anglicised corruption of the Dutch Einderaam, which is of unclear origin. It is most commonly theorised to have been derived from an extinct Austronesian name for the area. Einderaam was used by early Dutch settlers to refer to the area surrounding the "Golf van Einderaam" (today in English the Gulf of Enderron). The name Enderron appeared around the same time in English as a corrupted form of the Dutch form of the word. Following the conclusion of the Mariana War in 1692, the English-controlled territory became known as English Mariana, and then British Mariana when England and Scotland amalgamated to form Great Britain in 1707. During the early 18th century, as the colony began to develop its own culture and identity, the British Marianan government lobbied for self-government and a name change to differentiate it from Dutch Mariana. These were granted in 1759, which saw the first official use of the name Enderron. Government and politics Enderron is a federal parliamentary republic, with a ceremonial President as head of state and Prime Minister as head of government. The president holds a largely ceremonial position, and by convention acts solely on the advice of his or her ministers. Thus, in practice the president has no actual decision-making or de facto governmental role, and merely acts as a legal figurehead for the actions of the prime minister and the federal cabinet. The president does have extraordinary reserve powers which may be exercised outside the prime minister's request in rare and limited circumstances. Enderron's tiered federal structure of government divides governmental function into national, prefectural and local levels. The federal government is separated into three branches: *Legislative: comprising the president and the Enderronian Parliament; *Executive: the Cabinet of Enderron, comprising the prime minister and ministers of state; *Judiciary: the High Court of Enderron and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president on advice of the Cabinet. The unicameral Enderronian Parliament is based on the Westminster system. It has 150 members elected from single-member electoral districts, commonly known as "electorates" or "seats", allocated to prefectures on the basis of population. Elections are held every four years, with fixed election dates. Enderron's electoral system uses preferential voting for nearly all elections, at both the federal and prefectural level. Voting is compulsory for all enrolled citizens 18 years and over in every jurisdiction, as is enrolment. The party with majority support in parliament forms the government and its leader becomes Prime Minister. In cases where no party has majority support, the President has the constitutional power to appoint the Prime Minister and, if necessary, dismiss one that has lost the confidence of Parliament. There are two major political parties that usually form government, federally and in the prefectures: the Social Democratic Party of Enderron and the Liberal Party of Enderron. Within Enderronian political culture, the Liberal Party is considered centre-right and the Social Democratic Party is considered centre-left. Independent members and several minor parties have achieved representation in Enderronian parliaments, most notably the Enderronian Greens, Enderron Democrats and various localist prefectural parties. The most recent federal election was held on 15 September 2018 and resulted in the Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Lisa Kelsey Chan, retaining government. Prefectures Enderron has eighteen prefectures — Avalon (AV), Cooksland (CO), Flinders (FL), Greenberg (GB), Janszoon (JZ), Kaigan (KA), Lawrencia (LR), Longshan (LS), Miranda (MA), New Colorado (NC), New Plymouth (NP), New Surrey (NS), Plymouth (PL), Sierra (SA), Sylvania (SY), Tojima (TJ), Wentworth (WE) and Westhaven (WS). Wentworth and New Plymouth are regarded as special metropolitan prefectures as they hold both prefectural and city status. Under the constitution, the prefectures essentially have plenary legislative power to legislate on any subject, whereas the Commonwealth (federal) Parliament may legislate only within subject areas concerning the entire nation. For example, prefectural parliaments have the power to legislate with respect to education, criminal law and state police, health, transport, and local government, but the Commonwealth Parliament does not have any specific power to legislate in these areas. However, federal laws prevail over prefectural laws to the extent of the inconsistency. Each prefecture has its own unicameral parliament. The states are sovereign entities, although subject to certain powers of the Commonwealth as defined by the Constitution. Unlike the federal government, which operates with a parliamentary system with a ceremonial head of state and powerful head of government, the prefectures have a semi-presidential dual executive system, with a Governor and a Premier (Chief Minister in the metropolitan prefectures), both having executive powers. In each prefecture, the premier and cabinet are accountable to the parliament but not necessarily to the president, which can result in cohabitation, where the governor and premier of a prefecture are from differing political parties. Local government The local government is the third tier of government in Enderron. Local governments, generally referred to as "councils", carry out administrative functions including the provision and maintenance of physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and sewerage, rubbish collection, community services and development approvals. Local governments are divided into several designated types: *Boroughs, which are a special designation for local government areas in the two metropolitan prefectures Wentworth and New Plymouth; *Cities, which are generally council areas covering a metropolitan area with a population of at least 500,000; *Counties, which cover larger non-metropolitan or rural areas; and *Municipalities, which cover smaller cities and towns. In addition, there exist several areas with relatively low populations that are not a part of any local government area. These are known as unincorporated regions and are administered directly by the prefectural governments. Almost all local councils have the same administrative functions and similar political structures, regardless of their naming. They will typically have an elected council and usually an executive leader, called a mayor or sometimes a council leader, responsible for chairing meetings of the council. In most councils, the mayor is a directly elected figure, but in some cases the mayor is elected by their fellow councillors from among their own number. The local government areas operate on a similar system to the prefectures, with an executive mayor whose powers are kept in check by the council. Demographics As of 2019, Enderron has a population of approximately 31.0 million (46th in the world), and a population density of 155.9 per sq km (55th in the world). The country's population is concentrated in the south, particularly in a horseshoe shape around Marshall Bay, Hounslow Bay and the Plymouth Channel. This region is commonly known as the Metro Central Region or nicknamed the "Bay Area". Of the total population, 23.7 million (76.5%) are citizens, while the remaining 7.3 million (23.5%) are permanent residents and international students/workers. Enderron is highly urbanised. 59 percent of the population lives in the ten most populous cities. Metropolitan areas with more than one million inhabitants are Wentworth, New Plymouth, Shirakawa, Rockingham, Chung'an, St Claire and Forsythia. As with other developed countries, Enderron is experiencing a demographic shift towards an ageing population. In 2018 the average age of the Enderronian population was 36.7 years (ranked 71st in the world). Enderron's fertility rate is relatively high, at 2.0, just below the replacement rate of 2.1. This, supplemented by a high immigration quota, has resulted in Enderron having an annual population growth rate of 1.28%, higher than most other developed nations except Australia. Largest cities and towns of Enderron Ethnicity and immigration Prior to 1692, the island of Mariana was divided into a loose collection of small colonies and settlement territories controlled by various colonial powers, the main being the Kingdom of England, Dutch Republic, Qing China, Edo Japan and the Ryukyu Kingdom. After the Mariana War ended, most Dutch settlers in English Mariana were expelled to Dutch Mariana, and Chinese and Japanese settlers were expelled the island of Kanashima, which later became a leased territory of Japan in 1727. Thus, the remaining inhabitants of what is today Enderron were largely Anglo-Celtic, and their descendants today form a group known as British Enderronians. Approximately 10 percent of the pre-war Dutch settlers remained in British Mariana, and their descendants are known as Dutch Enderronians. Throughout the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century, Enderron progressively abolished racial-based immigration, which resulted in a steady arrival of migrations mostly from East Asia. After World War II Enderron received a large wave of immigration from across Europe. With the advent of official multiculturalism in 1971, the rate of non-British immigration has increased significantly. Today, Enderron has one of the world's largest immigrant populations, with foreign-born residents accounting for 35.4 percent of the population. Most immigrants are skilled, but the immigration quota includes categories for family members and refugees. In 2018 the largest foreign-born populations were those born in China (6.7%), England (5.1%), Japan (4.7%), Batavia (3.5%), Kanashima (2.0%), the Netherlands (1.6%), the Philippines (1.5%), South Korea (1.5%) and Taiwan (1.2%). In the 2016 national census, the most commonly nominated ethnicities were: Language Enderron has one official language at the federal level, English, and three recognised minority languages: Chinese, Dutch and Japanese. English is the common language, and is the language of business and government, and the medium of instruction in schools. Public bodies and government services in Enderron conduct their business in English, and official documents written in a recognised non-English language, i.e. Chinese, Dutch or Japanese, typically have to be translated into English to be accepted for submission. The Constitution of Enderron and all laws are written in English, and interpreters are required if one wishes to address courts in a language other than English. English is the native tongue for nearly two-thirds of all Enderronians. Approximately 8 percent of Enderronians cannot read or write in English. According to the 2016 census, English is the only language spoken at home for 63.9 percent of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Japanese (9.7%), Mandarin (7.5%), Dutch (4.4%), Korean (2.9%), Hokkien (2.2%), Filipino (1.8%) and Spanish (1.3%). A considerable proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are bilingual. English is understood by 91.4 percent of Enderronians, making it by far the most understood language in the country. The next most understood languages are Mandarin (19.2%), Dutch (17.4%), Japanese (16.8%), Spanish (5.2%), Korean (4.7%), Hokkien (2.7%) and French (2.2%). It is required by the national curriculum that students at public schools learn at least one language other than English from Year 4 to Year 10. Religion Enderron has no state religion, and its constitution explicitly prohibits the federal government from making any law to establish any religion, impose any religious observance, or prohibit the free exercise of any religion. In the 2016 census, only 48.6 percent of Enderronians declared a religion, with the remaining 51.4 percent counted as having no religion, one of the highest percentages in the world. Christianity is the largest religion in Enderron, with 27.8 percent of Enderronians adhering to one of its denominations, including Protestant (14.3%) and Roman Catholic (8.1%). 20.8 percent of Enderronians identify with non-Christian religions, the largest being Buddhism (9.6%), Shinto (5.4%) and Judaism (1.0%). Historically, Christianity was the predominant religion in Enderron, largely due to the beliefs of British and Dutch settlers. For most of the country's history, the Anglican Church was the largest religious denomination, with a large Roman Catholic minority. However, since World War II, Christianity's position has heavily declined while non-Christian religions and irreligion have grown significantly. In the 1988 census "no religion" overtook Christianity as the largest "religious" group in Enderron. Today Enderron is a highly secular country, and religion plays little to no role in a majority of Enderronians' lives. The country has one of the lowest levels of religious adherence in the world, as only 7.3 percent of all Enderronians, or a quarter of Christians, attend church on a weekly basis. References